A Most Hopeful Meeting By Chance
by Gennai's Acolyte
Summary: Hajime manages to stumble across Sato as she attacks Natsumi and prevents the murder. But, things have gone too far between the two, and Hajime can't handle it by himself. Perhaps a certain photographer might be able to force the two to work things out, and this meeting between Hajime and Mahiru might just lead to something more. A non-despair Hinazumi fic.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Well, as I'd announced, here's the second of my two current multi chapter works for Danganronpa, this time featuring another ship that is near and dear to my heart. There's a criminal shortage of Hinazumi stories around, so I thought I could try to remedy that a bit. Like my other Danganronpa stories so far, this one is canon to the same AU. I hope that you enjoy, and please leave a review to let me know what I've done well and what I can improve on!

Disclaimer: Danganronpa is the property of Spike Chunsoft Co. Ltd.

 **A Most Hopeful Meeting by Chance**

 **Chapter 1: Tragedy Averted**

Normally, life in the reserve course was fairly tame and boring, at least compared to the apparent wild antics that the main course students seemed to regularly engage in. And, Hajime Hinata supposed, it made sense. After all, most of the reserve course students paid through the nose to attend Hope's Peak, and even then they had to maintain nearly impeccable academic records in order to remain enrolled. If you slipped up and didn't perform up to the high standard expected of the school, there were always hundreds of other applicants clamoring for spots at Hope's Peak, so any student could be easily replaced at a moment's notice.

However, that dull atmosphere of quiet drudgery had changed recently with the arrival of the latest member of the reserve course: Natsumi Kuzuryuu. To say that the effect that her arrival had had on Hajime's class was like kicking a hornet's nest would have been a tremendous understatement. Her confidence and good looks should have won the support of most of the members of Class 1-A, but she'd made it abundantly clear that she thought that they were nothing but trash, resulting in isolation from most of the other students. But, she seemed to prefer things that way. In fact, she only ever bothered to speak with two people in her class given the chance. One was Hajime himself, who Natsumi apparently spoke with because they were the only two students in the reserve course who still clung to the hope of making it to the main course someday.

The second person was… well, therein lay the problem. Sato, whose first name Hajime had never heard from anyone, always seemed to be in heated argument with Natsumi. Apparently, the two had attended the same middle school, and had even been involved in the same club. But instead of being friends, the two clearly hated each other's guts. Natsumi had declared that she would do anything in order to get a spot in the main course, and apparently she had her eye on one particular student: a redheaded girl, Mahiru, if Hajime's memory served correctly, who also had some kind of history with both Natsumi and Sato. She'd been able to temporarily defuse the situation between the two, though it hadn't lasted long, and Hajime wasn't sure that she'd be welcome in 1-A again; Natsumi had openly suggested that the girl considered herself superior to those in the reserve course, playing on their envy to make the reserve course an unfriendly place for her.

Things had only continued to spiral down from there. Every day had brought new shouting matches between the two girls, but today something had changed. Sato had accused Natsumi of scheming up ways to hurt Mahiru, and whatever Natsumi had retorted with clearly struck a nerve with Sato. She'd tried to slap Natsumi, with Hajime barely catching her arm in time. Apparently, that was the last straw for Natsumi too, who calmly informed Sato that she'd signed her own death warrant. And that was what had led Hajime to his current task.

Trailing after Natsumi, afraid of what she might do if left alone, Hajime found her leaning against the outdoor railing, gazing longingly at the main course building in the distance. It was a look that Hajime recognized well; he was sure it was the same one that he'd worn on several occasions as he looked at Hope's Peak through the window during class It might not be the nicest thing to interrupt someone when they so obviously wanted to be alone, but Hajime needed to try and sort this out before things got too out of hand. "Natsumi!" he yelled out as he ran over to his classmate.

She turned her head towards Hajime, irritation gleaming in her eyes. "Now what?" she demanded.

"I know that you and Sato don't get along," Hajime said, trying not to pant after his run over, "but still. You can't threaten people like that!"

Natsumi scowled at that assertion. "What do you care?" she demanded, "You're just some rando from the reserve course. I can do whatever I damn well please.

"They're not going to scout you," Hajime warned, "In fact, once they catch wind of this, they'll probably kick you out!"

That certainly got a reaction. "Shut up already!" Natsumi spat at him, "You don't know a thing! I'm getting that transfer no matter what!" Tears began to well up in her eyes, and Hajime knew just how much this apparently meant to her. She'd mentioned that her brother was enrolled in the main course as the Ultimate Yakuza, and she apparently fancied herself as the Ultimate Little Sister. Obviously the school didn't consider that to be a talent, or at least not one deserving of a place in the main course, and Hajime supposed that Natsumi felt that her brother was leaving her behind. "I've got talent," Natsumi continued, though her voice sounded much less confident, "I know I do."

Hajime's eyes opened a little bit wider. He and Natsumi were more alike than he'd thought. Even though she acted cocky and pretentious towards her classmates, in the end she knew that she wasn't all that special. She wanted to be though, just as Hajime did. Apparently realizing how vulnerable she looked, Natsumi quickly wiped her eyes and turned away, the scowl returning to her face.

"Why does this matter to you?" questioned Hajime. He needed to confirm that his suspicions were correct. "Why is the main course so important?"

"My brother is the Ultimate Yakuza," she said, surprisingly replying without any hesitation, "If I'm not his Ultimate Little Sister, I'm left behind." She paused for a moment before finishing. "Not on my watch," she said, her voice little more than a whisper. "Screw that!" she said forcefully, as if trying to dispel the doubts that plagued her.

 _There's more to life than just talent_. The words of Chiaki Nanami, Hajime's friend from the main course, came to the front of his mind. Was this what happened when one allowed themselves to be consumed by thoughts of talent? But it was really impossible for someone with talent to understand what it was like to not have talent at all. Seeing the world move forward, with others finding success while you were left in the dust, was the most despairing feeling Hajime could think of. "I get it," he said softly, surprising Natsumi, "Feeling like you're left behind must be the worst thing ever." Natsumi glared at him, expecting him to continue his explanation. "But I…I don't think you have to be a top student, or an elite," Hajime explained, obliging Natsumi's unspoken request.

"What does that even mean?" Natsumi demanded, incredulous, "In this world you either make the cut or you don't. The end."

"You love your big brother, don't you?" Hajime asked rhetorically, as he already knew the answer, "Talent isn't even a factor. Just stay with him and make memories together!" He could hardly believe what he said, considering that something deep inside him didn't believe his own words.

"My brother deserves the very best!" objected Natsumi, "That includes all of the people around him. I want him to be proud of me." She cut off, staring gloomily ahead as she continued softly, "Not down from above. I want to stand by his side." She laid her head onto her arms. "As soon as I'm the Ultimate Little Sister, I can be with him again, no problem."

Hajime had nothing to respond to that with, and Natsumi's demeanor indicated that she considered the conversation over. He turned to leave. It was almost time for his daily video game session with Nanami, and he looked forward to it as usual. Making his way back downstairs, he retrieved his belongings from his locker on the first floor and made for the exit. But, before he could make it out of the building…

"Ah, Hinata," a voice called out, flagging Hajime down. Turning, Hajime saw one of the reserve course faculty, not his own teacher, but one of the other normal staff hired by the academy to handle the reserve course students. "I need you to clean the first-floor classrooms," the man told Hajime, "Class inspections are coming up, and we need to look our best if we're going to receive any additional funding next year.

Hajime couldn't believe it. Was this guy serious? Of course he was. The reserve course students were seen as a dime a dozen, and the school expected them to always do as instructed, even if the task was a menial one like this. It certainly helped them save money on custodial staff. Plus, Hajime wasn't sure whether or not this particular teacher knew just how tenuous his own status as a student at Hope's Peak was, even compared to the other reserve course students. So, declining this "request" seemed like a bad idea. "Yes sir," Hajime replied resignedly. And he'd been so excited to meet up with Nanami again today. Oh well, there was always tomorrow he supposed.

With a sigh, Hajime went into room 1-A and surveyed the damage. Fortunately, it didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, just the usual dust buildup and dirt on the floor, as well as a few scattered items that would need to be put away. Walking over to the corner of the room, he opened the blue storage locker in the back which stored the cleaning supplies. Grabbing the broom, he started sweeping up the mess. The quicker he could finish this up, the sooner he could leave.

* * *

After around thirty minutes, Hajime put the last of the cleaning supplies back into the locker and closed it back up again. He hadn't scoured every nook and cranny of classrooms 1-A and 1-B, but he'd done a thorough enough job that he was confident that no one would complain about it. By this point however, Chiaki had probably already figured that he wasn't coming today and had likely returned to her dormitory. This day definitely hadn't been particularly great for Hajime. But, at least now he could go back to his room and try to relax for a while. Tomorrow would be here before he knew it, and he could always meet up with Chiaki then…

A loud crash echoed from upstairs, jolting Hajime out of his thoughts. He froze for a moment, unsure of what to do. Was there an intruder in the school? Maybe someone had accidentally knocked something over. Maybe…

As the horrible thought crossed his mind, Hajime took off running towards the source of the noise. Sure, Natsumi had threatened to kill Sato for her actions earlier, but certainly she hadn't meant it. But, he hadn't seen or heard anyone else leaving the school, and he had to at least check. His heart pounded, and he fervently wished that his gut was wrong about this. Bounding up the stairs to the second floor, he slipped on one of the steps and barely managed to catch himself by grabbing onto the handrail, pulling himself up and continued his sprint. Most of the classrooms on the second floor were closed, their lights off as the faculty had locked them up for the evening. The music room, however, was wide open, and Hajime could hear grunts and gasping sounds slipping from inside.

Barrelling into the room, Hajime was met with the sight that he had feared, though not exactly how he had imagined it. Sato was kneeling on Natsumi's chest, her hands grasped around the shorter girl's throat. Natsumi gasped for air, her face beginning to turn blue from a lack of oxygen. Nearby, the broken remains of a fish tank littered the floor, evidently the cause of the crashing noise Hajime had heard earlier.

To say Hajime was shocked would have been an understatement. Even though Hajime had seen Sato trying to hit Natsumi earlier, he'd imagined that it would be the Yakuza who would be the aggressor. Not taking the time to ponder this, he ran headfirst towards the two girls, tackling Sato and pushing her off the shorter blond-haired girl. The two tumbled to the floor, with Sato letting out a groan as she struck the floor hard. She glared at Hajime, and he was unnerved to see just how… unhinged she looked, her eyes looking crazed and filled with murderous intent. The look was gone in an instant, replaced with confusion. "Hinata?" she asked incredulously, "What are you still doing here?"

"I got stuck cleaning the downstairs classrooms, then heard a commotion coming from up here," Hajime explained, "so I came to investigate. Looks like it's a good thing I did."

Nearby, Natsumi began to recover, coughing and wheezing as oxygen once again flowed into her lungs. She wheezed for a few seconds, then seemed to realize what had happened. Her face filled with rage as she hauled herself onto her feet, and Hajime watched as her hand slipped into her pocket to fish out a switchblade. He had no idea how she'd managed to get THAT into the school, but this was not a good sign. As she flipped the blade out, Hajime leapt to his feet and, as she began to lunge towards the now prone Sato, quickly grabbed her by the arm and held her in place.

"Bastard!" she barked out loudly, "Let go of me! That bitch tried to kill me, so she's a dead woman!" She struggled to break free of the boy's grip, but Hajime clung on as if his life depended on it.

"Natsumi, just stop," Hajime said softly, "no one is going to die today." Realizing that he wasn't going to let go, she stopped trying to break free and alternated between glaring at him and staring hateful daggers at Sato. The black-haired girl had gotten to her knees and was now looking at Natsumi with a wary, yet completely unrepentant expression on her face. It made it clear that she still very much wanted to kill the Yakuza but wasn't certain about what to do now that a third party had intervened.

Hajime himself wasn't actually sure what his next move should be. He'd managed to separate the two girls, and for the moment there wasn't any danger, but that could change in an instant. Clearly, neither Sato nor Natsumi were ready to let this incident go, and there was only so much that he could do. "Natsumi," he said, "Let go of the knife."

The girl glared at him again, and an expression of shame filled her eyes as she reluctantly let the weapon drop to the floor. Being bested by someone that she considered to be beneath her wasn't doing her current mental state any favors. But, the weapon was out of her hands, so that was an improvement. Cautiously, he let go of her arm, and she pulled it away quickly, though she made no move for either the knife or Sato.

"So, Hinata," Natsumi said acidly, "what are you going to do now?"

That was a good question. "I suppose that I need to let the school know what's happened here—"

"No!"

Hinata blinked in surprise as both girls yelled in unison. So, there was at least one thing that they could agree on. "If you tell them, they'll expel me!" Natsumi implored, her face now showing signs of panic.

"They'll expel _us_ ," corrected Sato. She too looked disturbed at that prospect, though she was keeping her emotions hidden better than Natsumi.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do then?" asked Hajime, "This has gone too far now. Someone needs to help you two work this out, because otherwise you two are going to just keep on fighting until one of you does die."

Both girls were silent at that comment. Then, Sato spoke, her voice low. "Maybe… maybe Mahiru could help?"

Natsumi laughed darkly at that suggestion. "Koizumi? That goody two-shoes, really? You only want to bring her into this so that you can spend more time gazing at her."

"It's not like that!" protested Sato, her cheeks flushing, "Besides, she at least knows both of us. And even though we never got along, things never got this far back in middle school. You can't deny that she knows how to take care of people and help others get along. Besides, I know that you still respect her, even though you're jealous that she got scouted by Hope's Peak and you didn't."

The blond-haired girl's face darkened at that last comment, but she said nothing further in protest of the idea. Sato turned to Hajime again. "Please, at least give this a chance. We've worked too hard just to get tossed out, but…" She stared down at her hands for a moment, as if just realizing how close she'd been to actually murdering Natsumi just a few minutes earlier. "We do need someone to help settle this. Otherwise…"

The fear of being kicked out of Hope's Peak, even if it was just the reserve course, was something that Hajime could definitely empathize with. But, that look that he'd seen in Sato's eyes, then in Natsumi's, made him question if anything could keep them from plotting against each other. He knew that this should be reported to the school, but then the two would likely blame each other for their expulsion. That would likely make the situation even worse. At least this way there might be a chance, however slim, of getting these two to cooperate for once. And he'd seen this Mahiru manage to defuse a similarly hostile situation before, even for only a short time.

He sighed. "Alright, we'll give this a chance," he said, "but if anything like this happens again, the school is going to have to know." Fishing around in his pocked, he pulled out his cellphone. "What was her phone number?" he asked Sato.

* * *

In her room in the Hope's Peak main campus dormitory, Mahiru Koizumi, the Ultimate Photographer, frowned slightly as she sifted through the pile of photographs in front of her. The pictures themselves didn't bother her, though she often wished that she could take photos of more serious subject matter, but rather it was what they indicated that was troublesome. She'd managed to make some great friends during her first few months at Hope's Peak, including Hiyoko Saionji, the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, Mikan Tsumiki, the Ultimate Nurse, and Ibuki Mioda, the Ultimate Musician. Their varied and colorful personalities made life at Hope's Peak far more interesting and enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.

But, as much as she loved her new friends, there was something missing when she hung out with them. None of them seemed much interested in photography, or even tried to learn more about it, despite the fact that taking pictures was Mahiru's favorite activity. It wasn't as though it upset her that her new friends didn't share her interest, but she had gotten used to having people around who had at least a fraction of her own passion for photography. Maybe that was why she'd particularly enjoyed being able to meet up with her friend Sato and why she always looked forward to the time they spent together. When she'd found out that she was also attending Hope's Peak, even as a reserve course student, she'd been delighted to know that there would be at least one familiar face nearby.

In fact, it made her feel rather proud to see that three people out of her middle school's photography club had managed to make it to Hope's Peak: herself, Sato, and, most recently, Natsumi Kuzuryuu. Mahiru had been far less excited when she'd heard that she would be attending Hope's Peak with her, since the girl had always made it quite clear that she thought herself better than everyone around her, Mahiru included. In fact, when Mahiru had been scouted as the Ultimate Photographer, Natsumi had griped, "Hope's Peak must really have lowered its standards if they let someone like you in, with your 'amazing' pictures of peoples' smiles." That had hurt a little bit, though Sato quickly reminded Natsumi that her brother had been chosen in the same batch of students as Mahiru.

That seemed to have begun the now bitter feud between Sato and Natsumi. The two had never really gotten along, but ever since that day things had escalated out of control. Mahiru remembered that the two had nearly come to blows the last time that she'd visited Sato, and she'd had to throw herself between the two to stop them. There wasn't much that she could do though, other than to tell her friend that she shouldn't fight with Natsumi. Hopefully, if they left each other alone things could settle down a bit. She'd actually thought about checking up on Sato this evening, and maybe even introducing her to her friends from the main course, though she wasn't sure how they'd react to mingling with someone from the reserve course.

Suddenly, Mahiru's phone began vibrating, indicating that someone was calling her. Picking the phone up, she checked to see who was calling, but didn't recognize the number. Hopefully it wasn't some idiot sending out spam. Clicking the answer button, she brought the device up to her ear. "Hello?" she said questioningly.

"Is this Mahiru Koizumi?" asked an unfamiliar male voice on the other side.

"This is," she replied, "May I ask who's calling?"

"My name in Hajime Hinata, from the reserve course, Class 1-A." That caught Mahiru's attention; that was the same class that both Sato and Natsumi were in. A sinking feeling began to form in her gut as the voice continued. "Your friend Sato has been involved in an…incident. Could you come over to the reserve course building as soon as possible?"

Mahiru had to struggle to bite down the panic that was starting to form inside her. An incident? Was Sato hurt? Was she… Pushing such speculation from her mind, she tried to find out more specifics. "What kind of incident?" she asked.

"It's better if we discuss it in person," the man replied, "But Sato's alright, if that's what you're worried about."

A wave of relief spread throughout Mahiru. At least Sato wasn't hurt, though whatever had happened was still serious enough for them to have called her and requested her to meet them in person. It could be some kind of prank or setup, but she felt like she could take care of herself reasonably well if that was the case. After all, it seemed like it would better to trust this guy and regret it rather than not trust him and regret it if something bad had happened. "I'll be there in a few minutes," she said, already moving to put her shoes on.

"We'll meet you in the music room on the second floor," Hajime said before hanging up. It took just a moment for Mahiru to finish slipping her shoes on, and then she briskly headed out the door. The trip to the reserve course building didn't take long, though it felt like an eternity as speculations drifted through the photographer's mind. The orange sunset cast a warm glow throughout the Hope's Peak campus, and normally she would have taken her time and snapped pictures of some of the best views, but currently she didn't want to waste any time. The doors to the reserve course building remained unlocked, and she hastily made her way into the building, past the classrooms on the first floor, and up the stairs.

The fact that only one room currently had its lights on made it easy to identify the music room. Hesitantly, Mahiru approached, slightly anxious about what she might find. To her surprise, however, upon reaching the threshold of the room, she was greeted by the sight of Sato sitting next to the piano at the edge of the stage, and Natsumi leaning against the wall by the window, about ten feet away from the black-haired girl, glaring daggers at Sato. Between the two stood a young man, a few inches taller than any of the women, crisply dressed in the black uniform of the reserve course. The only really notable feature about him was an odd tuft of hair that stuck out from the rest; other than that, he seemed remarkably…normal.

Seeing Mahiru enter the room, Sato looked over at her, and a flash of guilt crossed her face as she looked away. Something was clearly bothering her, and Mahiru had a feeling that she'd find out exactly what sooner than she'd like. The boy, Hajime she presumed, straightened up, a somewhat grim expression on his face. "Thanks for coming," he said as he walked over, "My name is Hajime Hinata."

"I'm Mahiru Koizumi," she replied curtly, "so what is this about? You said that something had happened with Sato?"

Hajime's eyes looked down, signaling his discomfort. "You're not going to like this, but…" He straightened back up and looked her in the eye. "I stumbled onto Sato in here a half-hour ago. She was trying to kill Natsumi."

Mahiru's blood ran cold at that statement. Her friend… had tried…to kill someone? "H-how could you know that for sure?" she asked, unwilling to believe Hajime's words, "I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if you saw them fighting but…"

"She was on top of Natsumi, with her hands around her throat," Hajime insisted, "If I'd gotten here just a little later, she would have died." He indicated to the ground nearby, where the floor was littered with glass shards and the damaged frame of a broken fish tank. "I only came up to check because I heard that falling and breaking."

The photographer didn't have any response to that. If what he said was true, then there could only be one logical conclusion. Turning to Sato, she whispered out, "Sato…Is this true?" She desperately wanted to hear her friend deny it. She didn't want to believe that her friend could possibly have tried to kill someone.

"It's true." Sato admitted quietly, "I was…so tired of hearing her trash talk you and threaten to force you out of Hope's Peak. I was sure that she would have killed you if I didn't do anything, so I wanted to make sure that she could never hurt you again."

"Stupid bitch," Natsumi grumbled, her voice loud enough to be heard by the others in the room, "I might not like you two, and I might talk smack, but there's no way I'd be dumb enough to try to kill either of you. I'm going to make it into the main course, and there's no way that'd happen if I kill someone."

Sato's eyes narrowed, then widened as she realized that Natsumi was, apparently, being completely honest. As if now realizing exactly how far she'd sunk, she crumpled to the floor and started shaking. "I…I…I really did almost kill Natsumi, didn't I?" she mumbled, staring blankly at her hands, "What have I done? How could I have gone this far?"

Sato's behavior was deeply disturbing to Mahiru. She'd never have thought her friend capable of attempting murder, and apparently, she herself hadn't either. Kneeling down, she started to put her arm around her friend to comfort her, but stopped mid-motion, unable to make herself touch Sato so soon after finding out what she'd done. Instead, she looked up at Natsumi, then Hajime, a questioning look in her eyes.

"I was going to tell the school administration what had happened," Hajime explained, "but that would mean certain expulsion for both of them once everything came to light. So, they convinced me to let you try to sort this out. You have history with both of them, right? I was hoping maybe you could help sort things out."

Mahiru didn't know how to respond. She'd tried to keep Sato and Natsumi in line before, and it hadn't worked at all. She was just a photographer; she didn't know how to make people get along. She wasn't a leader like Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess from her class, and she didn't know how to guide people towards a mutual goal like the Ultimate Team Manager, Nekomaru Nidai. All she had were her photos, and those couldn't possibly do anything to fix this mess.

No, wait…There was a conversation that she'd had with Nanami one day when Mahiru had persuaded all the girls from her class to get together to fix some desserts and to talk and hang out afterwards. Along with everyone else, Mahiru had been surprised at how quickly the gamer had gone from a relative wallflower to becoming Class 77-A's representative, and they were curious to find out what had happened.

"I thought my games were all I had, and they couldn't be of use or interest to anyone else," Chiaki had told them, "I couldn't possibly use them to make friends. That's what I'd convinced myself of. But Miss Yukizome showed me how wrong that was. If I loved my games so much, even if I was by myself, how much more fun would it be to share them with all of you? That's why. As long as you're doing what you love, and sharing it with the people around you, you shouldn't be afraid of not being able to make friends. They'll either see your passion and enjoy it with you, or at least know who you really are."

Nanami had won over the whole class by sharing her games, and the passion she had for them, with everyone. Maybe, just maybe, Mahiru could do the same thing with her love of photography. If she could possibly keep Sato and Natsumi from each other's throats, it was at least worth trying. She stood up, trying to exude an aura of confidence that she couldn't quite make herself feel. "All right," she said assertively, "I know what we're going to do. From now on, the four of us are charter members of the Hope's Peak Academy Photography Club!"

The other three stared at her incredulously, and for a moment Mahiru wondered if she'd made a mistake. But no, she'd decided to try this plan, and she needed to stick by it. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Natsumi snarked in a deadpan, "Why would I ever want to be in a photography club with you again? What, are you that eager to show off and rub your pictures in my face?"

"No, of course not!" protested Mahiru, "but you loved photography back in middle school, right? You wouldn't have joined the club back then if you didn't. And you were at least willing to work with us for the club, right? Maybe this will give you and Sato the opportunity to work things out? And think about it, this might give you a chance to impress the school officials if you're still trying to get into the main course next year."

Apparently, that thought hadn't occurred to Natsumi, and she seemed to be thinking deeply about the idea. But, another voice threw out another note of protest. "Why do you want me to be a part of this?" Hajime questioned in disbelief, "I don't know anything about photography. In fact, the only camera I've ever used is the one in my cellphone!"

"Jeez," Mahiru groaned, her face looking slightly disgusted, "That's no fun at all. Pictures on phones can't really capture the scene properly. I know!" she said, her face brightening back up, "I'll teach you how to take real photos. It's great! I'm sure you'll love it, and you'll need to be able to handle a camera if you're going to be part of a photography club!"

Hajime protested, "But I never agreed to—"

"Hey, hey!" the photographer said, cutting off Hajime, "So, we'll have our first official meeting in front of here tomorrow afternoon. Does that sound good to the two of you?" she asked, looking at Sato and Natsumi.

"That sounds great," said Sato as she stood up. She still looked rather unsettled, but she had at least recovered enough to control herself. It wouldn't be pleasant to have to be around Natsumi even more than usual, but at least she could spend more time with Mahiru this way.

After some consideration, Natsumi frowned, her face clearly showing her unhappiness with the situation. "I guess that'll work," she said disdainfully, "But just so you know, I'm only agreeing to this because I want to do everything I can to get into the main course. I still think you're an idiot and a worthless goody-goody."

Mahiru gave a broad but forced smile. "As long as it gets you there, that works for me," she said. Letting the smile drop, she glanced around the room again. "You two should probably leave now," she said, "Someone's bound to come looking through here before the lock the building up for the night, and I'm sure they won't be happy when they find this."

The other three students realized that she was right; it was getting late, and it was impossible to think that no one would stumble across the mess that Sato and Natsumi had made in the room during their fight. They wanted to be sure to be long gone before that happened. Natsumi quickly skulked out of the room, and Sato followed a short while later, giving one last look back at Mahiru before departing. Hajime also began to make his exit but was stopped by Mahiru. "Hinata," she said, "I wanted to have a word with you before you leave." He stopped and as he turned to face her, a thought flashed through Mahiru's mind. Impulsively, she grabbed her camera and brought it up to her face. "Wait, first, just stay there, right there," she said, "Now, say cheese! Just kidding!" She snapped the picture, the whole sequence of events having occurred in only a few seconds.

Hajime blinked his eyes to recover from the camera flash. He hadn't been expecting that, though maybe that was his fault. After all, he was speaking to the Ultimate Photographer. Mahiru quickly checked the picture and grinned. "Yep, I guess this looks good enough. You sure do have a dumb looking face though."

"Is that really what you wanted, to take my picture and tell me how I look?" asked Hajime, "I'm sure that I would have looked more professional if you'd given me the time to prepare."

"You don't really capture what a person truly looks like if you give them time to pose," Mahiru said, disagreeing, "If you want to capture the essence of your subject, you have to take a spontaneous shot. Besides, I just wanted to get a picture of you, since I don't have one yet, and we're going to be working together for a while."

Hajime gave a sigh. "I still don't understand why you're insisting I be part of your new photography club," he said, "And you didn't even consider whether I wanted to be a part of it or not. I have other things that I like to do you know."

"I'm sorry about that," Mahiru said, looking away, "I should be thanking you for intervening rather than causing you more problems. But, I can't watch them all day, and you're even in their class, so it makes sense for you to help out and let me know if anything else comes up." Suddenly she glared at Hajime and stuck out her finger, poking him in the chest. "Besides," she said in a more aggressive tone, "you are a boy, right? It's a boy's job to make sure that the girls are safe, so from now on I'm counting on you to help me make sure that neither of those two try anything like this ever again."

Her sudden change in tone threw Hajime off balance. He'd thought that photographer was just a laid back, soft-spoken girl, but apparently she had enough steel in her to take charge when she wanted to. And she did have a point; he'd been the one to stumble onto this fiasco, and he'd pulled Mahiru into it as well instead of just going to a teacher. So, it was sort of his responsibility to help her out now. "Alright," he conceded, "I'll help keep an eye them for you, and help you out with your club idea. I hope that it works, because those two have some major issues."

Clasping her hands behind her back, Mahiru gave a warm smile, closing her eyes as she did so. "Thank you," she said sincerely, "This means a lot." Clearing her throat, she continued, "Anyways, well then, I'll expect to see you here again tomorrow." With that, she turned and hastily made her way out of the room, leaving Hajime by himself.

Now alone, Hajime considered the events of the last hour or so, and wondered what exactly he'd gotten himself into. Besides now being the appointed caretaker of Natsumi and Sato, he was now expected to be part of a photography club, even though he didn't know the first thing about photography? He supposed that he'd have to text Nanami and let her know that they'd have to change their meeting time for playing video games, if he'd even have the time to meet at all. Sighing and shaking his head, Hajime made his way out of the music room. At least tomorrow couldn't possibly be as crazy as today had been.

* * *

AN: Well, I finally got through this. This chapter really didn't want to work with me, particularly since Sato and Natsumi don't get enough time for in depth characterization, and the events surrounding the Twilight Syndrome Murder incident are seemingly contradictory between Danganronpa 2 and Danganronpa 3. I tried to get them to mesh as well as possible, but I'm certain that there are still going to be some inconsistencies. I wanted to write these characters well, since the Hinazumi ship has a special place in my heart, but trying to get the story started was quite tricky. I can only hope that this turned out satisfactorily. I'm sure some people are going to be disappointed that there hasn't been anything super sweet in either of my stories yet, but a setup like this requires proper pacing. Those moments will get here eventually, but the characters have to develop some more first.

I'll try to update this on a biweekly basis, as I'm alternating between this and _When He Smiled_ , but I can't promise that the updates will stay this constant. I'll have law finals coming up before long, and might not have as much time to write. But, I do plan on regularly updating these two stories as much as possible.

I'll see you at the next update!


	2. Chapter 2: Apologies and Smiles

AN: Hey guys, I'm back! I need to apologize that it's taken so long for me to update this, since I know there are at least some people who've been waiting on it, and others waiting on my other story to update. The last few months have been really tough. I had law finals, followed by my summer internship that's been keeping me busy, but I'd still planned on getting a bunch of work done on my stories in my spare time. But, at the beginning of the month my grandfather died, and that kind of killed my motivation to write for quite a while. Still, I'm hoping that I can try to get back in the swing of writing more regularly, and I'll be trying to start work on the next chapter of "When He Smiled" as soon as possible.

Anyways, I hope that you all enjoy this, as it was rather tricky to put together in a way that I was willing to accept. As always, please review so that I can have an idea of what works and what needs to be improved. Thank you!

 **Chapter 2: Apologies and Smiles**

This conversation was not one that Mahiru was looking forward to having. The previous night had not been kind to her, with troubled dreams involving Natsumi, Sato, or both dead in the reserve course music room, their bodies lying broken on the floor with blood pooling around them. The dreams had seemed so real and kept her from getting a restful night's sleep. On the other hand, it had also reminded her that there was someone else who needed to be informed of the previous day's events. But as necessary as it was, that didn't make the prospect of explaining the incident to him any easier.

As usual, Mahiru had arrived early to her homeroom class, but while she would normally be making conversation with Hiyoko, Ibuki, Mikan, or Nanami, today she was simply sitting quietly, watching the door and trying to plan exactly what she was going to say. She knew that tact would be best, but even though everyone in Class 77-A was on fairly good terms, she and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu still didn't exactly get along well. Maybe it was because of Natsumi's behavior, or maybe it was because of Fuyuhiko's rather cold and rude demeanor, but the two of them preferred to not interact unless they needed to, and when they did the conversations were rather brief. Still, there wasn't any particularly bad blood between them, like there was between Mahiru and Natsumi, so she hoped that Fuyuhiko would at least listen to what she had to say rather than taking action on his own.

Eventually the door slid open, and the Ultimate Yakuza sauntered in, presenting a face of confidence and dismissiveness that put even his younger sister to shame. He casually made his way towards his desk, but Mahiru stood up before he made it too far. "Kuzuryuu," she said, "I want to talk with you outside for a moment."

The Ultimate Yakuza stopped suddenly, surprised at Mahiru's unexpected request. "Huh?" he said in confusion, "Why would you want to talk with me Koizumi?"

Mahiru glanced around for a moment. "Like I said, I'd like to talk about it privately," she said, "It shouldn't take too long."

"Tchh," Fuyuhiko scoffed, clearly not impressed by the lack of information, though it could possibly just be his usual façade, "Fine. But you'd better make it quick shutterbug." Mahiru struggled to suppress a grimace of irritation. Several of her classmates still occasionally used that nickname to refer to her, despite her obvious dislike of it. But, she'd gotten tired of telling people to stop using it, and she knew that most of the time it was said with the best of intentions. Still, at least she'd gotten Fuyuhiko to agree to listen to what she had to say, so that was a positive sign.

The two students stepped outside the classroom and Mahiru made sure that the door was closed behind them. "Alright Koizumi," Fuyuhiko said, the slightest hint of annoyance in his voice, "what is it that you wanted to say?"

After briefly checking to make sure that no one else was coming up the hallway, Mahiru took a breath, bracing herself for what she had to say. "Yesterday evening I got a call from one of the reserve course students. He wanted me to visit the reserve course building and said that it was urgent. I went and found out that…my friend Sato attacked your sister."

That certainly got Fuyuhiko's attention as his eyes snapped up, pinning Mahiru in place. "She did what?" he asked, his voice like cold steel, "I fuckin swear, if anything's happened to my sister I'll fucking kill them!"

"She's alright," Mahiru assured Fuyuhiko, "but things could easily have been different. Luckily, someone stopped Sato and managed to keep them separated."

The Yakuza scowled. "I assume that someone reported this to the school? I'd have thought that they'd at least be competent enough to let me know about it by now."

Mahiru shook her head. "The only ones who know about this right now are you, me, Natsumi, Sato, and Hinata, the boy who came across them. You know how much bad blood there is between Sato and your sister, but neither one of them wanted to let the school know because they don't want to get kicked out."

"I guess that means that I need to teach your friend a lesson," Kuzuryuu said menacingly, "Sorry Koizumi. I won't hurt her too much, but I can't just let this go unpunished."

"No, wait!" said Mahiru frantically, "The situation's already being taken care of. They both agreed to let me try to make sure that they get along and that nothing like this happens again. I felt like you deserved to know what had happened, but I need you to trust me to handle this and not do anything rash."

Fuyuhiko's face seemed to harden for a moment as he considered Mahiru's request. Finally, he nodded. "Fine, I'll leave it to you to handle your friend and my sister," he said, "I know that she's crazy, so I'll let this incident go as long as I have your word that everything's being taken care of. But," he continued, "she's still my sister. If anything happens to her, I won't be able to do anything about it. I don't like hurting people, or killing them, but my family demands that our honor be preserved. Blood can only be repaid with blood." With those ominous words, Fuyuhiko slid the door back open and walked into the classroom.

Mahiru remained standing in the hallway for a few moment, feeling cold after Fuyuhiko's warning. As if there wasn't already enough pressure on her after the events of the previous day, now she had the additional concern that her classmate might personally take revenge if she screwed up and couldn't keep Natsumi safe. Clapping her cheeks to snap herself out of her morbid thoughts, she tried not to think about the worst-case scenario as she reentered the classroom, though for some reason the image of a bloody baseball bat lingered on the edge of her mind.

* * *

Class 1B hadn't been this calm in a long time. But, rather than reassuring Hajime that everything was back to normal, it instead disturbed him even more than when Natsumi and Sato had been constantly yelling. There was still tension in the air, but now it was just subtler than before. The entire day went by without the two interacting at all, and any time that they even looked in each other's general direction their eyes seemed to slide on past, as if they weren't even there. Hajime supposed that he should prefer this to the open violence that had broken out the day before, but it just didn't feel right. The goal was to get the two to actually put aside their differences, not to have them pretend that the other didn't exist until they couldn't resist the urge to fight again.

Well, that was something for Koizumi to figure out. Hajime was just another normal, boring, average student. There was no way that he could solve something like this on his own. In fact, currently he was little more than a glorified babysitter, monitoring the two girls and making sure that they didn't get into any trouble. If only he had some ultimate talent. Then he might actually be useful. But, even without any talent he'd promised Koizumi that he would help her out with this, and Hajime wasn't the sort of person who went back on his word lightly.

Just to make sure that he didn't completely embarrass himself the next day, he'd done some research on photography the previous night, so he was pretty sure that he could at least handle a camera. But, without one to practice with, he still lacked any actual experience. It also didn't help that he'd had to break the news to Nanami that he wouldn't be able to make it to their usual after school gaming sessions any more. He'd caught the slightest hint of disappointment in her voice, but she seemed to pick right back up after he agreed to meet with her over the weekend to make up for the loss of their daily sessions. So, even if the photography club didn't turn out well, at least he had something to look forward to later on.

As the bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day, Hajime quickly grabbed his items and made his way out of the classroom. The last thing that he wanted right now was to get impressed into cleaning duty again. Hopefully he'd be able to make his way to the music room before anyone else and prepare for the meeting. Neither Natsumi nor Sato seemed in a hurry to go anywhere, so he figured that he should be the first one to the meeting place.

However, as he sprang up the stairs and made his way into the music room, the sight of bright red hair let Hajime know that his prediction had been wrong. Koizumi gave him a broad smile as he walked in. "Hey Hinata! I'm glad that you made it here before Sato and Kuzuryuu," she said, "It'll give us a minute to plan for today."

Well, at least she seemed to be on the same wavelength as him. "So, did you have something in mind Koizumi?" he asked.

The redhead nodded. "Yeah," she replied, "I think it would probably be best if we play things safe today. I was planning on splitting us up to see what pictures we can take around campus, with Sato coming with me and Natsumi going with you. It seems best if we keep them separate for a while. What do you think?"

"I guess that sounds like a plan," Hajime said, "If we're splitting up, it wouldn't make any sense to send them together, particularly after yesterday. You and Sato are friends, and Kuzuryuu and I have an…understanding. I think."

"I guess that's what we'll do then," Mahiru said, still smiling, though the expression had faded a bit. It brightened back up as she seemed to remember something. She reached into her bag and pulled out a camera, one that looked to be an older model than the one that she wore around her neck. "Here," she said, handing him the camera, "I said that I'd let you borrow one of my old cameras, since you don't have one." Hajime gratefully accepted the device, placing its strap around his own neck. "By the way," Mahiru continued, "how were Sato and Kuzuryuu today? Were they still fighting?"

"No," Hajime said, shaking his head, "In fact, they wouldn't even look at each other. It was kind of disturbing actually."

That caused Mahiru's smile to completely disappear. She glanced away, looking down as a look of disappointment crept onto her face. "I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else," she said sadly, "I was hoping that maybe they'd learn from yesterday and try to start fresh, but I should have known that it wouldn't be that easy." Shaking her gloomy thoughts away, her smile returned, albeit slightly more forced than before. "Well, I figured that things wouldn't be that easy. That's what this club is for anyways!"

"This club is for what?" came Natsumi's slightly drawling voice as she walked into the room, "Like I said, as far as I'm concerned, the only reason that this group exists is to help me get noticed by the school's talent scouts. Anything else is just a waste of time."

"Then maybe you should quit now," snarked Sato, as she came in a few moments later. Catching Mahiru's disapproving look, she at least tried to look contrite. "Sorry about that. I'll try not to be so confrontational," she said, though she didn't even glance in Natsumi's direction. "So, what's the plan for the photography club's first day?"

Mahiru beamed another smile, seemingly recovered from Hajime's reported lack of progress between the two. "Well, since it's the first day, I thought that we'd keep things simple and split up to take pictures around campus, then maybe grab something to eat afterwards! So, Sato, you and I will look around the eastern part of campus, and Hinata and Kuzuryuu, you two can take the eastern side. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you manage to capture with your cameras!"

Almost as soon as she had finished her words, Mahiru was pulled towards the door by Sato, who had eagerly grabbed onto the redheaded girl's arm, apparently eager to get their expedition underway. The two friends left swiftly, leaving Hajime and Natsumi alone in the room. The silence was a little awkward, given that not only did Natsumi think herself better than Hajime, but his stubborn restraining of her the previous evening remained fresh in their minds. Hajime just hoped that Natsumi wouldn't hold a grudge over that.

The yakuza gave an almost imperceptible sigh. "I guess we should get goin too," she said resignedly, "No way am I letting those two losers beat me." With confident poise, Natsumi headed straight out the door, forcing Hajime to catch up to her and letting her lead the way.

* * *

As it turned out, the eastern half of Hope's Peak's campus seemed to offer numerous opportunities for photographs, with the old school building and facilities, as well as a small park area with birds, squirrels, and other assorted wildlife. The fact that the sun dipping down in the west offered solid lighting without shining directly into the camera lens for most pictures only made things easier. And yet, even with what he assumed were optimal conditions for photography and good material, Hajime's pictures continued to disappoint. For some reason, all of his photos either ended up blurry, or failed to properly capture their subjects. Even though he thought he was doing everything correct in a technical sense, apparently he still lacked something in his technique, thus substantially lowering the quality of his photographs.

Then there was another issue: Natsumi. From the moment they'd left the reserve course building, she'd been acting suspiciously, stealing nervous glances and Hajime, acting jumpy whenever he tried to say anything to her, and anxiously fidgeting. This was definitely not normal behavior for the typically self-assured girl. Given who he was dealing with, such out of place behavior should have sent off warning sirens in Hajime's mind, but the odd behavior didn't seem to be malicious in nature. Obviously, Hajime wasn't an expert at reading people's intentions, but the yakuza's behavior seemed more like symptoms of worry or nervousness rather than of plotting. Besides, she'd made it quite clear that she wasn't going to try anything that could get her ejected from Hope's Peak. On the other hand, Hajime still suspected that if she could eliminate Sato without risk of getting caught, she'd do so in a heartbeat.

Nonetheless, Hajime figured that it was probably best to tackle the matter head on. Since he was alone with Natsumi, he might as well try to do his part to find out what he could. After all, if the goal was to mend the situation between Sato and Natsumi then he needed to speak with the yakuza at some point.

"Hey, Kuzuryuu," he asked, "could we talk for a moment?"

"What is there to talk about?" Natsumi griped, "We're supposed to be taking pictures, not chatting like a couple of bums. I'm not going to lose to those two, so I need to get as many quality photos as I can."

"We don't have to talk for long," Hajime assured, "but you've been acting…kind of strange. I was just wondering if something was up?"

Natsumi flinched slightly, confusing Hajime even further. Did she really not want to talk with him that badly? She'd never had any problem talking down to him before. Did she know that he was working with Koizumi? Or was it something about the previous day's incidents?

"Tchh. I was hoping that I could keep putting this off, but I suppose it can't be helped," grumbled Natsumi. The girl looked around, and before Hajime could question her further, she took a slight bow, placing one hand on her hip and extending her other arm out towards the ground, almost touching the dirt with her fingers. "I got something I want to say," she said, the words sounding like they were being forced out through gritted teeth. "I apologize if I make a mistake with this," she continued, then the girl took a breath "My last name is Kuzuryuu, and my first name is pronounced 'Nat-su-mi.' Someday I will be recognized as the Ultimate Little Sister, but for right now I'm just a member of the Hope's Peak Reserve Course. From now on, I hope that we get along so we can get to know each other better."

Hajime was speechless. Out of all the possibilities that he'd envisioned in his mind regarding this conversation with Natsumi, this had not been one of them. "What…what is this?" he asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"

"Shut up, bastard," Natsumi spat in irritation, "It should be obvious, shouldn't it? I'm introducing myself and giving a greeting." She stood back up straight and glared at him. "I don't intend to ever have to do that again, so you should be grateful," she said before looking away. "But, you did save my life yesterday, so that deserves something. Honor and loyalty are important to the Kuzuryuu family, and so I can't let a debt like that remain unpaid."

Now the girl's behavior began to make more sense to Hajime. She considered herself superior to everyone around her, so she'd never actually given himself or anyone else a proper greeting or introduction. For someone so prideful, it must have been incredibly uncomfortable to lower herself to interacting with someone else as if they were on the same level as her, and yet her family's code apparently compelled her to do so as repayment for saving her life. While he wasn't sure of precisely the proper way to respond to the gesture, he figured that reciprocation was probably the safest bet.

"My name is Hajime Hinata," he said, bowing slightly, "reserve course student at Hope's Peak Academy. I look forward to working with you as well." Standing straight once more, he offered his hand to Natsumi, who grimaced slightly for a second before reaching out and shaking it.

The contact lasted for just a moment before Natsumi pulled her hand away, clearly still embarrassed about the whole incident. "Just don't expect me to offer you a brother cup or something like that," she said. "Alright then," she continued, "now that _that's_ out of the way, maybe we can get back to something more important. It'll take a little while to get back, so we don't have too much more time." She paused before smirking at him. "You said that this was your first time taking real photographs, didn't you? So, what do you have to show for yourself after today?"

Now it was Hajime's turn to frown as he somewhat reluctantly handed his camera over to Natsumi. "For some reason my pictures aren't turning out the way that they should," he explained as she began to peruse his work, "They're ending up blurry or out of focus. I thought I was doing everything correctly, but even so they're not any good."

Thankfully, Natsumi didn't snicker or otherwise insult his inferior photography skills. She handed the camera back to him and sighed. "Okay," she said, "why don't you go ahead and take a picture and I'll see if I can figure out what you're doing wrong, just so you won't embarrass yourself too much when we meet back with the other two. It wouldn't do for your photos to be shoddy since it'd reflect poorly on me as well."

Hajime decided to ignore her thinly veiled insult and looked around for something to photograph. He spotted a small bird that flew around and landed near the trees about twenty feet away. Bringing the camera up, Hajime aimed the lens at the creature, then brought his finger over the shutter release and pressed down. The camera clicked as the photograph was saved, and he brought the viewer up to see how his photo had turned out. Disappointment flowed through him again at the result. He could barely even see the bird in his picture, even though he'd thought that he'd gotten a near perfect shot.

Looking up, he saw Natsumi shaking her head in disapproval. "I think I can tell what your problem is," she said, her voice laced with underlying condescension, "you're moving too much when you try to take your picture. Even worse, you're stepping backwards, putting the camera out of focus and distancing yourself from the subject. Next time, try taking a step forward, toward whatever you're photographing. It'll help stabilize your position after taking the step, and by deliberately moving forward you should keep yourself from stepping back by mistake."

That sounded a little too simple to Hajime, but it couldn't hurt to give the idea a try. Bringing the camera up to his face once again, he centered the view on the bird, which was still hopping around on the ground, most likely looking for food. Keeping his finger over the shutter release, he took one step forward, planting his right foot firmly on the ground in front of him. At that moment he pressed down on the button, and the camera gave another click. Lowering the camera, he once again reviewed his picture, and couldn't resist giving a small smile. Finally, he had a picture that he could be proud of. The bird was clearly visible, and the shadows cast by the trees gave the picture a nice little effect.

He looked over at Natsumi, who had a smug look on her face. "Thanks Kuzuryuu," he said gratefully.

She shrugged. "Don't mention it," she said, "but just don't expect me to keep holding your hand. I just didn't want you to completely embarrass yourself. Still, don't think that your pictures are ever going to be one my level."

Natsumi's words seemed cold, but Hajime knew that she hadn't had to give him any assistance. "Of course," he replied with a slight smile on his face. With that, the two students returned to scouring the area for desirable photographic material, spending about thirty more minutes taking as many photos as possible. Finally, as the sun began to sink lower towards the horizon, they decided that it was time to head back and meet up with Mahiru and Sato.

* * *

As it turned out, the other two girls were already waiting for them in front of the Reserve Course building. Hajime waved as he and Natsumi arrived to join them. "Hey you two!" he said, "I hope that we didn't keep you waiting too long!"

Natsumi scoffed under her breath. "Yeah right. They can wait on me as long as they have to."

Fortunately, it seemed that neither Mahiru nor Sato heard the comment, or if they did they chose to ignore it. "No, we haven't been waiting too long," Mahiru assured Hajime, "so I guess we timed things just about right. So, did you manage to get some good pictures? I know that this was the first time you've gotten to really handle a camera Hinata, so I hope that you didn't have too much trouble. And you haven't been taking pictures since our old club, right Kuzuryuu?"

Hajime opened his mouth to reply but found himself cut off by Natsumi. "You better believe that I got some good pictures," she said confidently, "Even when I haven't used my camera in a while I can still take better pictures than anyone else."

"Yeah, I had some trouble at first," Hajime said after Natsumi had finished her piece, "But Kuzuryuu gave me some advice, and my pictures started turning out much better." The yakuza gave a noticeable smirk at the recognition. "What about you two?" Hajime asked, "Did you manage to get some good shots in?"

"Yeah!" said Mahiru, a smile beaming on her face, "I think we managed to find some good subjects, and the evening light made for a nice setting." Meanwhile, Sato simply nodded, keeping her eyes glued to Mahiru. The red-haired girl finally seemed to notice and quickly looked away with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "Anyways," she said, her voice sounding slightly flustered, "so how about we all get something to eat now? That was the plan, right?"

"I'd rather not spend any more time with you losers than I have to," Natsumi said dismissively, "But don't get the wrong idea. I'll be back next time you all decide to meet. I'm going to make sure that I surpass all of you." As she walked away, she threw one hand up in a half-hearted wave goodbye, not even turning to look back.

After Natsumi had gone a fair way, Sato looked regretfully at Mahiru. "Sorry, but I have to leave too. There's an archery tournament tomorrow, and I want to make sure I'm on top of my game." She gave Mahiru a hug, then offered a wave to Hajime. "I'll see you both later then!" she said, her voice sounding more cheerful than Hajime had ever remembered hearing before. He'd been worried about Sato as much as he'd worried about Natsumi, so he was glad that she seemed to have recovered fairly well from her low point the day before. Sato walked off, and Hajime was relieved to see that she wasn't heading in the same direction as Natsumi. Even though the both of them seemed to have renounced any open hostility towards each other, he wasn't willing to trust leaving them both alone with each other. Not yet.

That left Hajime and Mahiru alone. The red-headed photographer's smile had faded somewhat, and she clearly seemed disappointed that half of their club had left. She turned to face Hajime. "I'd understand if you're wanting to leave too. You're only here for the club, so now that it's over for the day you probably have other things you'd rather be doing."

She wasn't wrong. Hajime knew that he probably needed to prepare for classes the next day, and if he could find some extra time then he'd love to be able to relax for a little while. But, at the same time it seemed almost unfair to leave Koizumi on her own after she'd planned for the photography club to hang out afterwards. "If your offer still stands, I wouldn't mind hanging out for a bit," he said, "But I'm not too hungry at the moment. How about we grab more of a snack instead?"

Mahiru's face brightened with a smile again. "If you're up for something sweet, there's a nice ice cream shop nearby. How does that sound?"

Hajime couldn't help but give a slight smile as Mahiru's cheerful persona returned. "That's sounds great," he said, "Just lead the way."

* * *

The ice cream shop turned out to be a small but well-kept establishment with an open, contemporary feel. The white walls and tables caused the interior to feel far more spacious than it truly was. The two students didn't need to spend long looking at the selection before approaching the counter.

"Hello there," the woman working at the counter greeted warmly, "What can we get for the two of you today?"

Mahiru spoke first. "Could I please get two scoops of strawberry?" she said.

The woman entered the order and looked at Hajime. "And what would you like?" she asked.

Hajime cleared his throat nervously. He had to keep careful track of his finances, since he didn't have much to spare. But, he'd agreed to come, and he could afford to treat himself everyone once in a while. "I'd like one scoop of Chocolate and one scoop of vanilla please," he requested.

The cashier smiled as she rang up the orders, and the two paid for their treats. The ice cream was already served and ready for them by the time they were done, and the cashier slid them over to the two students. "Here you are," she said, "I hope the two of you enjoy, and have fun with your date!"

Both Hajime and Mahiru's faces flushed red at the remark and they began to stammer in protest. The cashier just continued smiling, clearly not believing them. After a few seconds they just decided to take their ice cream and move on, trying to put the moment behind them as quickly as possible.

After finding an open table, Mahiru and Hajime sat in awkward silence for several minutes as they snacked on their ice cream, both of them still too embarrassed about the mistaken assumption to say anything.

It was Mahiru who eventually broke the silence. "So," she said, "be honest. How did things go with Kuzuryuu today? I know that she can be difficult to deal with, so I'm sorry for dropping that on you at the last minute."

"Actually, it wasn't too bad," Hajime replied, thinking carefully for a moment before continuing. He decided that it would be more prudent to omit the details of Natsumi's apology; if he told anyone about that, he suspected that Natsumi would make his life into a living hell, debt or not. "She seemed like she'd more or less recovered from yesterday, but she didn't seem interested in talking about it at all. I did convince her to help me with my photos though, so at least there was some progress."

"Really? I'm glad to hear that!" Mahiru said, her usual smile returning, "I know that this was your first time as a true photographer, so it's great that you're already making progress." She seemed to think for a moment, then hesitantly asked, "Would you mind showing me your photos? I'd love to see how they turned out."

"Sure," Hajime said, pulling the borrowed camera off his neck and handing it across the table. The Photographer took it and switched it on, looking through its memory at the pictures stored on it. She seemed lost in contemplation for a little while, then her lips curled back up in a smile once again.

"I'm pretty sure I've found where Kuzuryuu gave you her advice," she remarked, handing the camera back to Hajime, "She has a pretty good eye for photos, and her technical execution is nearly perfect." A flash of something akin to regret crossed her face for the briefest moment. "She just seems to try too hard though," Mahiru remarked sadly, "sometimes technical perfection doesn't make for the best photograph; a more natural shot can be beautiful too. These look pretty good for your first time though Hinata," she complimented, "I think you could make a pretty good photographer if you want to."

Her remark made Hajime feel…content? That wasn't quite the right word, but being complimented on his pictures by the Ultimate Photographer himself made him feel useful for once, when normally living in the shadow of the nearby Ultimates filled him with inadequacy. A thought came to him: he'd just spent the afternoon improving his own meager photography skills when he had the Ultimate Photographer sitting across from him. This kind of opportunity should be wasted. "Would you mind letting me see your photos as well?" he asked.

A slight tinge of pink graced Mahiru's pale cheeks as she glanced shyly away. "If you really want to, I don't mind showing them to you," she said, a trace of nervousness in her voice. She removed her camera from around her neck and carefully handed it to Hajime. "Just please be careful," she urged, "this is really important to me."

Heeding her words, Hajime delicately but firmly took the camera in his hands, turning it so that he could see the pictures recorded inside. What he saw surprised Hajime. All of the photos were of other students around Hope's Peak's campus, and every single one of them contained glowing smiles. The shots themselves looked beautiful, with lighting and camera angle taken full advantage of, but centerpiece was obviously the students themselves. The expressions seemed too vivid to be confined to photographs, and a feeling of warmth and peace filled Hajime, as if he was sharing in the happiness of the photographed subjects.

The beauty of the photos rendered Hajime speechless for several moments as he made his way through the remainder of the photos. Finally, he set the camera down on the table, taking care as he did so. "Koizumi, these photos… they're amazing!"

As soon as the words were out of Hajime's mouth, a dark look made its way onto Mahiru's face and she quickly snatched her camera back up from the table, startling Hajime. "What's wrong Koizumi?" he said in concern.

She scowled at him. "Words like 'awesome' and 'amazing' aren't words of praise at all you know," she said, bitterness apparent in her voice. Unable to meet Hajime's eyes, she glanced away, "They sound half-assed and insincere…I really hate when people say things like that."

The reason for her reaction honestly surprised Hajime. He would have thought that it would be great to hear praise for one's work. After all, Koizumi was an Ultimate, so her work deserved to be called amazing. But at the same time, it really seemed to bother her, in the same way that it bothered Hajime when anyone dismissed him for lacking talent. Maybe it was rude or unfair of him to not evaluate her work properly. But how could be possibly describe how he felt in a way that did justice to her photographs.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, before thinking for a moment and trying to gather his words. "I can't really say it well, but… your pictures make my heart feel warm and stuff…" Hajime wanted to kick himself; his words sounded so cheesy, and he couldn't even give a complete assessment of the pictures.

Mahiru sighed. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, so I'm sorry as well," she said, "Photos depict everything, the whole truth of what's in them, whether it's beautiful or horrible. It's a photographer's duty to preserve that truth by recording it on camera." She looked away again, "At least, that's basically what my mom taught me."

That was the first thing that Hajime had ever learned about Mahiru that wasn't directly related to her talent Had he really allowed himself to think that she and the other Ultimates were some kind of greater beings, without any kind of lives outside their talents? He felt slightly foolish, and rather ashamed for all but forgetting that Mahiru was a person too.

"So, your mom takes photos as well?" he asked, trying to pursue this human aspect of the Ultimate Photographer.

She still didn't look directly at him, though she did reply. "My mom's a pretty famous war photographer," she explained, "but as you can see, I just take lots of photos of smiling people at normal places. Because the theme of my work is so conventional, people don't really care to judge it. All they say is stuff like "you should take more 'amazing' pictures." She put specific emphasis on the word 'amazing', and Hajime could clearly discern the anger and bitterness in her voice. "Even though I'm called the Ultimate Photographer, my work just isn't good enough to justify that title. People expect more serious subject material, and my record of smiles just isn't good enough."

"That's not true," Hajime interrupted, unable to let Mahiru denigrate herself or her work any longer, "I may not know much about photography, with this being my first day really using a camera, so I can't really give good feedback that you deserve, but… I really like photos like these. How should I put it…" he said, trailing off for a moment to gather just the right words before continuing, "Your ability to capture these smiles, it really makes me realize the importance of what's right in front of you, that life is beautiful and worth living every moment of."

Mahiru blinked, and a renewed wave of color came onto her cheeks. "That was…a really good comment," she said, her voice filled with heartfelt gratitude and appreciation, "Thank you." She looked into Hajime's eyes for a second before glancing away again. "If you want, I can show you more of my photos in the future, and I can try to give you some photography tips too, if you're still interested in improving."

Hajime smiled, "I'd really love that. Thank you Koizumi."

The red-haired girl fidgeted nervously for a few moments in the silence that followed before suddenly grabbing the cup containing what was left of her ice cream. "A-anyways," she said, sounding flustered, "I have some things to take care of before tomorrow, so I'll see you later Hinata. I've still got your phone number from when you called yesterday, so I'll let you know what the plan is for our next meeting. Until then, you can keep that camera I gave you. Bye!" She hastily made her way out of the shop, leaving a confused Hajime at the table with his mostly melted ice-cream. He'd actually been enjoying the Photographer's company, and felt disappointed that she'd left on her own. Well, it wasn't like it would be a long time before they met again. Until then, he'd just have to continue keeping an eye on Sato and Natsumi, and maybe try improving his photography skills. After all, if the Ultimate Photographer believed that he had potential, he couldn't let her down.


End file.
